23/09/2026
Creating Impact.
Creating impact is what happens when YOU go above and beyond the normal.
And I suppose before we go any further, we should probably establish what we actually mean by normal.
Let us look backwards for a moment.
YOU go on operations and, generally speaking, there is already a medal assigned to that operation. A campaign medal. There will always be discussions around exactly what that operation was called. War. Conflict. Peacekeeping. Intervention.
Stabilisation. Governments have plenty of terms for these things, and inevitably those terms become entangled with politics, economics and the reasons troops were deployed in the first place.
Some people will call it a bankers’ war. Others will call it a necessary intervention. We could disappear down that rabbit hole for hours, but that is not where I want to take this today.
YOU know what YOU signed up to do. YOU know what YOU did. YOU know where YOU went. YOU know who sadly never came back. And YOU know what the medals sitting on your chest represent to YOU.
Generally, if YOU completed the qualifying period in theatre, YOU earned the right to receive the campaign medal associated with that operation. YOU might have spent much of your time out on the ground. YOU might have been based in camp. YOU might have worked in logistics, communications, medical support, administration, security or one of the hundreds of other roles required to keep an operation functioning. Whatever your role, if YOU met the qualifying criteria, YOU qualified.
That medal represents participation in the campaign.
But then there is another level of recognition.
Sometimes somebody finds themselves caught up in a situation where something extraordinary happens. They react. They make a decision. They take an action that goes beyond what would normally have been expected of them in that moment.
That is where the gallantry system comes in.
Now, in my opinion, that system is not watertight. Recognition can depend on far more than simply what somebody did. Somebody has to witness it. Somebody has to understand what happened. Somebody has to recognise that the action may warrant further consideration. Somebody then has to write it up, evidence has to exist, the paperwork has to move through the system and eventually other people decide whether what happened reaches whatever threshold exists for formal recognition.
That means somebody can potentially do something extraordinary and never receive formal recognition for it.
No citation. No medal. No certificate. No announcement.
That does not mean the action did not happen, and it certainly does not mean the impact was any less real.
It simply means the system was never triggered.
Now fast-forward into civilian life.
The military medals may have disappeared from the equation, but recognition systems are everywhere. Employee awards, business awards, community awards, industry awards, leadership awards, entrepreneur awards, creator awards and recognition schemes for just about anything YOU can imagine.
And look, I understand it.
Somebody somewhere sees something YOU have done and thinks, “That was good.
That deserves recognising. That person went above and beyond.”
Fantastic.
But there is one part of the modern recognition world that I still struggle to get my head around, and perhaps somebody can enlighten me in the comments.
There are people out there, very special people, perhaps even people flexible enough to lick their own eyebrows, who actually put themselves forward for awards.
Ha ha.
There is now an entire industry built around this stuff. YOU find the award, fill in the form, list what YOU have done, explain why it was wonderful, highlight your achievements and effectively build your own case for why somebody should recognise YOU.
Now, I do not know about YOU, but as somebody who likes to think he has his own ego reasonably under control, I find some of that incredibly cringe-worthy.
I understand that certain professional systems require self-submission. Promotions, grants, qualifications, industry schemes and some awards are simply structured that way.
Fine.
But there is still something inside me that struggles with the idea of effectively saying:
“Look at me. Look what I did. Please validate me.”
Maybe that is just me.
Maybe I am old-fashioned.
Maybe YOU completely disagree.
And that is fine.
But none of what I have just talked about is actually what today’s Foundation means by Creating Impact.
Both the military gallantry system and many civilian recognition systems depend upon a trigger being pulled. Somebody notices. Somebody submits. Somebody considers. Somebody validates. Somebody eventually decides that what YOU did deserves formal recognition.
Creating impact requires none of that.
Impact can exist without a medal, certificate, trophy, social-media post or somebody standing on a stage saying well done.
Recognition can follow impact.
Recognition does not create it.
And perhaps one of the first things we should remember is this:
Impact is not invalidated by silence.
Nobody applauding does not mean nothing happened. Nobody commenting does not mean nobody benefited. Nobody sending YOU a message does not mean something YOU created, said or did failed to matter.
So let us park recognition there.
Because I have a much more important question for YOU.
What are YOU currently doing that could genuinely be defined as making an impact?
And I am not simply talking about the job YOU are already paid to do. Do that well.
Absolutely. If YOU consistently go above and beyond in your employment, that should be recognised.
I am talking about something else.
What are YOU doing concurrently?
What are YOU building? What are YOU solving? What have YOU noticed that other people appear to be ignoring? What problem keeps showing up in front of YOU where YOU find yourself thinking, “Why is nobody doing something about this?”
Perhaps people are suffering because information is missing. Maybe somebody is repeatedly losing money because a process is broken. Maybe veterans are struggling with something nobody has explained properly. Maybe families are encountering the same problem over and over again. Maybe customers are dealing with an issue that an entire industry has simply learned to work around rather than solve.
Perhaps the answer is already sitting inside your own experience.
Maybe YOU already know how the problem could be solved.
Maybe YOU have known for years.
That is where Creating Impact begins.
Not when somebody gives YOU an award.
It begins when YOU recognise a genuine problem and decide YOU are prepared to do something useful about it.
Every single person reading this complains about something during everyday life.
I do.
YOU do.
The person next to YOU does.
That is life.
Life is full of problems and solutions. Traffic. Poor service. Bad systems. Confusing information. Things that take too long. Things that cost too much. Things that are unnecessarily difficult. Things that should work but do not.
Most people complain about the problem, learn how to navigate around it and then carry on with their day.
But the smarter person begins looking at it differently.
Instead of merely asking why something is annoying, they start asking why it remains a problem. How many other people experience it? Why has nobody solved it properly?
Could it be made easier, cheaper, quicker or explained more clearly?
And eventually:
Could I solve it?
That is where ideas come from.
There is no shortage of ideas in the world.
There is a shortage of people conditioned to recognise where ideas actually come from.
Perhaps up until this point YOU were not conditioned to see problems in that way.
Maybe YOU were conditioned to deal with them, work around them, get the job done and move on.
That worked in one environment.
But now I want YOU to begin seeing problems as information.
Every recurring frustration is a clue. Every complaint is a clue. Every broken process is a clue. Every time somebody says, “Someone should really do something about this,” there might be something worth paying attention to.
That does not mean YOU have to solve every problem YOU encounter. YOU have one life and your time matters.
But during that short life, why would YOU not attempt to solve as many worthwhile problems as YOU reasonably can?
Because solving problems creates value.
And creating value creates impact.
The solution does not necessarily have to become a business. It might, but that is not the point. It could become a better process at work, a guide, a community resource, a small report, a conversation, a book, a video, a podcast, a course, a website or simply something YOU hand to one person and say:
“This might help.”
The format is secondary.
What matters is that the solution stops living only inside your head.
Because an idea sitting inside your head creates no impact.
Complaining about the problem creates no impact.
Saying, “Somebody should do something,” creates no impact.
At some point, what YOU know has to move from thought into something another person can actually use.
And that takes us into something every veteran needs to understand about the modern world.
Content creation.
Some people hear those two words and immediately think, “I’m not a content creator.”
Wrong.
Or at least, I think that way of looking at it is becoming increasingly outdated.
Content creation is simply one of the main ways ideas travel in the modern world. If YOU write a book, YOU are creating content. If YOU write a ten-page report, YOU are creating content. If YOU record a video, produce a podcast, write an article, build a guide, record a training session, create a presentation or explain something in a way that helps another person understand it better, YOU are creating content.
And every piece of useful content should have an intended impact.
That does not mean it needs to change the world. It means somebody should ideally be better off after consuming it. Maybe they understand something they did not understand before. Maybe they avoid a mistake. Maybe they make a better decision.
Maybe they save time. Maybe they save money. Maybe they feel less alone. Maybe they finally see an option they could not see before.
That is impact.
Sadly, much of what we see today across internet land seems to have forgotten that.
A huge amount of content is created for clicks, views, engagement, arguments, shock, outrage and attention.
And look, reach matters.
Of course it does.
If YOU have something useful to say, YOU want it to reach the people who need it.
But reach and impact are not the same thing.
Reach is how far your content travels. Impact is what changes when it arrives.
A million views can produce almost no meaningful change.
A ten-page report read by fifty people might completely alter the direction of five of them.
Which one created the greater impact?
A video can have modest viewing figures and still reach one person on exactly the right day with exactly the information they needed. A book can sit untouched for months, then one chapter gets read at the right moment and changes a decision. A podcast may only reach a few hundred people, but one listener hears something that makes them finally take action on something they have avoided for years.
Impact.
Do not confuse being seen with being useful.
Some impact can be measured.
YOU saved somebody two hours. YOU reduced a cost. YOU increased sales. YOU helped somebody find work. YOU improved a process. YOU solved a problem.
Fantastic.
Measure it if YOU can.
But not every meaningful impact arrives with a number attached to it.
Maybe somebody regained confidence. Maybe somebody felt less alone. Maybe somebody avoided a terrible decision. Maybe somebody started again. Maybe something YOU said shifted the way they looked at themselves.
There may be no dashboard for that.
If YOU can measure the impact, great.
If YOU cannot measure it immediately, that does not mean it did not happen.
And then there is feedback.
Because the moment YOU put something into the world, somebody will have something to say about it.
Negative feedback is still feedback.
Some of it will be useful. Somebody may expose a weakness in your idea, your solution or the way YOU presented it.
Good.
Use it.
Learn from it.
Improve.
Because YOU may have identified the right problem and developed a good solution, but presented it badly.
If the solution does not land, do not immediately assume the problem was wrong.
Maybe the delivery was.
Adjust it. Refine it. Try again.
But some feedback will be complete noise.
YOU should never set out to impact or impress everybody because YOU will not.
The moment YOU put something meaningful into the world, somebody somewhere will disagree with it, misunderstand it or simply decide they do not like it.
Be prepared for the naysayers.
YOU know the type.
A problem for every solution.
Maybe one day somebody will invent a switch to turn them off.
Until then, take the useful feedback, discard the rubbish and carry on.
Because if YOU need everybody to approve of what YOU create, YOU will eventually create nothing worth noticing.
Impact requires exposure.
Exposure invites criticism.
That is part of the deal.
And this is where concurrent activity comes back into the conversation.
Maybe YOU already have a job.
Fine.
Do it well.
But perhaps alongside that job there is something else YOU know needs building.
Maybe YOU have twenty years of knowledge sitting in your head that could be incredibly useful to somebody starting out. Maybe YOU have gone through a problem that thousands of other people are currently facing. Maybe YOU know a process that could save somebody hours. Maybe YOU learned a painful lesson that could save somebody else years. Maybe YOU understand something that YOU continually see being explained badly.
So create something.
Write it.
Record it.
Explain it.
Show it.
Package it.
Present it properly.
Because impact begins when the thing YOU know could help somebody stops living only inside your head.
If somebody later recognises what YOU have done, fantastic.
If somebody nominates YOU for something, fantastic.
If YOU win an award, good for YOU.
But that cannot be the reason.
Would YOU still do the work if there were no certificate, no trophy, no applause, no social-media post and no possibility of recognition?
If the answer is yes, then perhaps YOU are getting closer to the real meaning of Creating Impact.
Because impact is not about somebody else deciding that YOU mattered.
It is about something being different because YOU acted.
Maybe one person got a job.
Maybe one veteran found some direction.
Maybe one family avoided a problem.
Maybe one customer saved time.
Maybe one person finally understood something.
Maybe a hundred people benefited.
Maybe ten thousand.
The scale is not the first question.
The change is.
So here is something practical.
For the next seven days, start writing things down. Every recurring complaint. Every frustration. Every broken process. Every time YOU hear somebody say, “Someone should really…” Every time YOU find yourself thinking, “Why is this still so difficult?”
Do not try to solve everything immediately.
Just start training yourself to notice.
Because up until now, many of those moments may simply have looked like annoyances.
From this point forward, start recognising them as signals.
Problems are information.
Problems contain ideas.
Problems point towards opportunities to create value.
And if YOU can take one of those problems, develop something useful around it and present it in a form that genuinely helps somebody else, then YOU have moved from complaining about the world to improving a small part of it.
That is impact.
And perhaps that gives us the simplest question of all:
What actually changes because YOU were there?
Not what did YOU intend.
Not what did YOU post.
Not how many people clicked.
What changed?
Because Creating Impact is not about becoming famous. It is not about collecting awards. It is not about convincing everybody that YOU are important.
It is about identifying something that matters, doing something useful about it and putting the solution into the world in a form somebody else can actually use.
YOU do not need permission.
YOU do not need recognition.
YOU do not need somebody to nominate YOU.
YOU need a problem worth solving, a solution worth sharing and the willingness to act.
Because there is no shortage of problems.
There is no shortage of ideas.
There is no shortage of people who need something to be better.
Maybe the only thing missing is somebody prepared to do something about it.
Why not YOU?
Continue your repositioning at strugglingveteran (dot com). These Foundations are designed to help YOU question more, notice more and recognise what YOU may already have available to YOU. Creating Impact does not begin with an award. It begins with awareness. YOU notice something that is not working, recognise that somebody is being affected by it and decide that instead of simply complaining about it, perhaps YOU can contribute something useful. That is how ideas become solutions. That is how solutions create value. And that is how value creates impact.
If these Foundations are making YOU stop, think, ask better questions and look differently at what YOU could do next, register as an Early Bird at strugglingveteran (dot com). Early Bird members will receive a 10% launch discount when Struggling Veteran officially launches. No complicated pitch. Just an opportunity to get involved early, follow what is being built and receive the discount when the time comes.
Next we continue with Foundation #70, taking another step in understanding what YOU can build, contribute and become after service. Repositioning is not about sitting around waiting for somebody else to recognise what YOU might be capable of.
It is about beginning to recognise it yourself.
Al Grant.
Author - Struggling Veteran.
Helping Veterans Help Themselves.
